


Clustersong

by aenor_llelo



Series: For A Diamond Is A Marveled Thing [5]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Body Horror, Cluster Getting The Love They Deserve, Dolphins & Whales, Fluff, Forced Gem Fusion, Gem Fusion, Gem Language, Gemsong, Gen, Little Homeworld, Marine Mammals, Music, Ocean, Sharks, it's the cluster what do you expect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22444069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aenor_llelo/pseuds/aenor_llelo
Summary: Sparing a thought for the Gem War's greatest hero.
Series: For A Diamond Is A Marveled Thing [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604959
Comments: 17
Kudos: 522





	Clustersong

* * *

There is a shrine.

Wide and circular, with the gilded border of a five-pointed star, covered on its walkways all around with lovingly painted stones all the way up to its walls. Tall totem poles flank the borders of the setting- crowded registers of vines, flowers, and twisting earthly animals, marble white, embedded with the Diamond's colors its arabesque flourishes. The mouths whistle on the wind, the perfect improvisation, a perpetual meandering choir of sound.

Wispy cords haphazardly tent the little towers with all the grace of a child's maypole, tied with ribbons. There are handmade bells, the flags of distant Gem colonies, whimsical scenes on pecked paper. At a far shorter height, just short enough to be reached by a child (or perhaps a Ruby), one finds the odd friendship bracelet. Not even the rails are safe, wrapped in little animal keychains.

The shrine has no roof. It leaves itself to the open air as all eyes travel to the swirling, carved, endless chasm below.

Off to the side, there is a little shelter for the digital display of a book (currently _Pride and Prejudice_ ) and a little microphone prompting people to read aloud as far as they like.

_For Frank_ , a passing Gem whispers, tossing a small trinket into the darkness.

And sometimes, the void will respond. First the whisper, like a choir crooning in song, then a pillar of light rising up out of the well and out into the sky, shaking the totems around it into flutes.

Its form ripples like a waterfall. Ghosting across it's surface are elegant hands, almost reaching out to its onlookers. The shift of flowing hair and robes. Faces serene like sleep, their mouths open with distant echoing voices like a wailing stone. Eyes, innumerable eyes, shimmering and opalescent with a thousand shapes and emotions.

Rise. Rise and fly, upwards into the sky.

And then, as the ocean, to fall once more, pulsing like a drum.

=<>=

His dream opens to a distant, pulsing net of minds. _Hello, Frank._

_**Tomorrow. Tomorrow...** _

_What, tomorrow?_

**_Show you. Tomorrow._ **

=<>=

It is the barest edge of night, the settlement's lights just beginning to flicker on, when it begins.

The pillar of light that rises from the shrine, coloring the clouds. The arms that no longer beckon, but float aloft like the heavy current of ocean foam. The serene faces now set with stoic demeanors of concentration, a tangled troupe of synchronized dancers.

First came the ripples.

_Fish_. Little flying fish with gossamer wings and opal eyes burgeoning out of the pillar and leaping out into sky. Kaleidoscopic cuttlefish, rosy nautilus that sank down to mingle with the onlookers.

It escalated, from seals, to belugas, to whale sharks. A languid rotation joined by the kite bodies of manta rays. Tens of hundreds of swirling forms, translucent white and engraved with opal patterns, converging on its whirlpool, its pillar, its origin. It dawns, slowly, that every little creature carries the image of a Gem, somewhere on their bodies.

And they began to sing.

A wavering sustained note of quavering gemsong, followed by another and another. Millions of little broken songs harmonizing into a single choir.

It is the drum of ocean waves, the babble of water.

The chirp of whales.

The cry of seabirds.

Flutes and horns, and echoing caverns. An orchestra tuning.

Engines and distant revelry. The idle chime of metal, the flutter of paper.

It is the song of joy, it is the song of being alive.

(It is the song of Earth. It is the song of home.)

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Join the Discord server for draft bits, behind the scenes nonsense, yearning questions of my questionable literary choices, and future stories.
> 
> https://discord.gg/xdhnqKj
> 
> This series now has a dedicated written timeline for the curious in the series companion guide, which is the last "fic" listed in the series page.


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